A victim-survivor who was refused compensation for sexual abuse during her time in a children's home thought she was "going mad" after bureaucrats repeatedly misled her, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Canberra's Katherine Jackson applied to the national redress scheme in 2020 and only found out why her application was rejected this July.
She called out "institutionalised gaslighting" and found Department of Social Services staff handled her case in a way that was neither trauma-informed nor culturally safe.
She also shared evidence in which staff described her as "having a menacing edge", and said she hadn't "been the happiest camper".
On multiple occasions over two years, Ms Jackson was told the department had sent her a statement of reasons for the decision when they had not. She told the inquiry she was hoping she could use information from the document to appeal the rejection.
"I remember scouring my laundry - maybe I had thrown it in the bin - for this one paragraph to prepare for the appeal to the department," Ms Jackson said.
She told the inquiry she was experiencing severe mortgage stress at the time and resorted to taking $50,000 from her superannuation fund through a hardship claim.
The chair of the inquiry into the operation of the scheme, Senator Catryna Bilyk, was "horrified" hearing Ms Jackson's evidence on Friday.
"If it happened in my office, people would be sacked on the spot," she said.
The Department of Social Services sent Ms Jackson a statement of reasons explaining why she was refused redress in July this year.
It was attached to a letter from the department's secretary Ray Griggs who acknowledged the subpar process "took too long" and apologised to her.
The document stated an independent decision-maker believed Ms Jackson was abused but found a government institution was not responsible for it.
At the inquiry, Ms Jackson alleged the decision to refuse her compensation was based on a "technicality" because she was in state care but her parents were her legal guardians.
Contrary to her case, Ms Jackson revealed thousands of applicants who were not wards of the state and had not lived in government institutions but had been found eligible for redress payment, according to documents released to her in a 2021 freedom of information request.
Senator David Shoebridge, also present at the inquiry, said Ms Jackson was treated "utterly, utterly wrong" and he was "insulted" on her behalf.
"I can't imagine any department, any agency whose job is to deal with survivors of a traumatic experience dismissing you like that," he said.
Ms Bilyk said Ms Jackson's experience would be taken up with the Department of Social Services even if it meant delaying the inquiry's report.
"I don't care what the rest of the committee says, as chair, that's what we will be doing. It's absolutely inappropriate," she said.
The inquiry will hear evidence from more victim-survivors who applied to the redress scheme until 4pm on Friday.
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